Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu
Former Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has admitted he was scared in the run-up to the Presidential Primaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
His fear, he disclosed, stemmed from the fact that there could be sharp divisions within the party if internal issues were not properly resolved, which is why he had earlier been advocating for consensus to avoid going for the primaries in the first place.
Though he was optimistic that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia would emerge victorious if the polls were conducted more than ten times, he was scared of the unresolved disagreements that could result from the polls.
“I knew if the polls were conducted 10 times, Dr. Bawumia would win all, but I was scared. Alan was going into his fifth contest after contesting with Akufo-Addo, who was now exiting the scene per the 1992 constitution. For fear of sharp divisions and many others, I was rallying others for a consensus,” he revealed on Kumasi-based Abusua FM.
It would be recalled that the lawmaker for Suame in 2021 started a campaign to get the governing NPP to decide on presenting Alan Kyerematen as running mate and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as flagbearer ahead of the 2024 elections.
He believed that teaming up would have done the party a lot of good and provided an easy avenue for the NPP to lead Ghana by breaking the eight-year cycle.
However, his dream, which was exquisitely communicated to the political party’s elders, did not see the light of day since almost 13 known faces have picked forms to contest for the flagbearership position of the political party.
Speaking on Accra-based OKAY FM, he indicated that when he proposed the Alan-Bawumia ticket, it was only the two who were the frontrunners in the race and therefore it was not a move to stifle other members of the political party who had an interest in contesting.
“When I went to the elders of the party, including Kwadwo Mpiani and President Kufuor, I did not insist on who should be made the flagbearer and who should be made the running mate. I just suggested that they should talk to them since they were the frontrunners so that they agree on teaming up to form a ticket for the NPP in the 2024 election,” he clarified.
